Caroline Chisholm

by Sarah Goldman

  12Pearson, op. cit., p. 172.

  13Ibid.

  14Eneas Mackenzie, Memoirs, pp. 3–4.

  15Walker, op. cit., p. 178.

  16Ibid., p. 177.

  17Pearson, op. cit., p. 180. Pearson’s essay about Caroline is based on, amongst other sources, an interview with her daughter, also named Caroline. The younger Caroline would have been about sixty-six years old when Pearson wrote her essay. The younger Caroline said that her mother was sent to live with an “older woman” and related the story of a thief being frightened away by Caroline and the older lady throwing coal at him (see page 28). It is not known why Caroline was sent away from home. The older woman may have been her natural mother, or an early school teacher or a widow in need of help. It was not unusual for middle- and upper-class women to send their children from home when they were young.

  18Walker, op. cit., pp. 184–86.

  19Pearson, op. cit., pp. 180–81.

  20D.K. Shearing, Education in the Peterborough Dioceses in the Century Following the “Glorious Revolution” 1688, PhD Thesis, Institute of Education, University of London, 1990, pp. 285–86.

  21Reverend Henry Venn, The Complete Duty of Man or, a System of Doctrinal and Practical Christianity. With Prayers for Families and Individuals, William Collins, London, 1829, p.375.

  22James Fordyce D.D., Sermons to Young Women: Two Volumes in One, third American edition from the twelfth London edition, M. Carey, Philadelphia, 1809, p. 19.

  23Pearson, op. cit., p. 173.

  24John Moran, introduction to Little Joe, by Caroline Chisholm, Preferential Publications, Ashgrove, Queensland, 1991, p. iii.

  25Joan Perkin, Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England, Routledge, London, 1989, p. 3.

  26Eneas Mackenzie, Memoirs, p. 144.

  27Pearson, op. cit., pp. 180–81.

  Chapter 2: Marriage and Faith

  1Walker, op. cit., pp. 16–20.

  2International Clan Chisholm Society, www.rampantscotland.com/clans/blclanchisholm.htm

  3Walker, op. cit., pp. 16–20.

  4Caroline Chisholm, letter to Bishop Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham, quoted in Walker, op. cit., pp. 114–15.

  5Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. With a Biographical Sketch of the Author. A.J. Matsell, New York, 1833.

  6Eneas Mackenzie, The Emigrant’s Guide to Australia with a Memoir of Mrs Chisholm, Clarke, Beeton & Co., London, 1853, p. 6.

  7Saturday Review, 12 November 1859.

  8Wollstonecraft, op. cit., p. 10.

  9Helena Michie, Victorian Honeymoons: Journeys to the Conjugal, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006, p. xiii.

  10Renton Nicholson, The Swell’s Night Guide; or, a Peep Through the Great Metropolis, under the Dominion of Nox: Displaying the Various Attractive Places of Amusement by Night, H. Smith, London, 1846..

  11A Lady, A Manual of the Etiquette of Love, Courtship, and Marriage, Thomas Allman, London, 1852, p. 11.

  12Perkin, op. cit., p. 276.

  13Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Wives of England, their Relative Duties, Domestic Influence, and Social Obligations, D. Appleton & Co, London, 1843, p. 20.

  14Dr William Acton, MRCS, The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age and Advanced Life Considered in their Physiological, Social and Moral Relations, John Churchill, London, 1863, p. 101.

  15Family Planning Association, London, “Contraception: Past, Present and Future”, www.fpa.org.uk/sites/default/files/contraception-past-present-and-future-factsheet-november-2010.pdf

  16Hoban, op. cit., p. 413.

  17Most easily shown by the will of Caroline’s sister Harriet, who died in 1872. She left bequests to her local Wesleyan Chapel as well as to various nieces and nephews, including one niece married to a Church of England minister, and one of Caroline’s sons, Henry, who was a Catholic. Walker, op. cit., p. 153.

  18Raymond Apple, “The Jewish Emigrants from Britain: Australia and New Zealand”, in Gabriel A. Sivan (ed.), The Jewish Emigrant from Britain 1700–2000: Essays in Memory of Lloyd p. Gartner, Jewish Historical Society of England, Israel Branch, Jerusalem, 2013.

  19Artemas Bowers Muzzey, The English Maiden, Her Moral and Domestic Duties, Tallboys, Clark & Wilson, London, 1842, p. 153.

  20The Old Limerick Journal, vol. 40, 2004, p. 25.

  21Sir John Philippart, KGV and KPS (ed.), General Index to the First and Second Series of Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates forming A Digest of the Recorded Proceedings of Parliament, from 1803 to 1830, Baldwin & Cradock, London, 1834, p.303, “Petition from Northampton, against any further Concession to the Catholics, the object of the Petitioners being to secure as completely as possible, the Integrity and Safety of the Protestant Establishment in Church and State, 1829”.

  22William Whellan & Co., History, Gazetteer and Directory of Northamptonshire, Whittaker & Co., London, 1849, p. 185.

  Chapter 3: Life and Death

  1In writing this scene I referred to the following sources: Irvine Loudon, “Deaths in Childbed from the Eighteenth Century to 1935”, in Medical History, vol. 30, no. 1, 1986; and Anonymous, Plain Observations on the Management of Children during the First Month, Particularly Addressed to Mothers, Underwood, London, 1828, pp. 1–15.

  2Geoffrey Chamberlain, “British Maternal Mortality in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries”, The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 99, November, 2006, p. 2.

  3Ibid. In fact, a former naval surgeon, Alexander Gordon, had discovered the same link some fifty years earlier, but his findings had been so badly received that he had been hounded from his practice and forced to return to the navy to find work.

  4Monica-Maria Stapelberg, Through the Darkness: Glimpses into the History of Western Medicine, Crux Publishing, London, 2016.

  5Walker, op. cit., p. 27.

  6Loudon, op. cit., p. 29.

  7Walker, op. cit., p. 31.

  8Parkes, op. cit., p. 286.

  9Whellan, op. cit., p. 172. There is no indication that Caroline or Archibald (who would have received her property and any income and monies along with her hand in marriage) maintained any financial association with this or any other property in Northampton in later years, whilst there is evidence that William, a hog jobber like his father, was still resident there in 1849.

  10“Mr De Ville of Mrs Chisholm Organization deduced from Phrenological Examination, Brighton 29th July 1833”. Signed by James De Ville. Brighton Jan. 30th 1833, Papers relating to Caroline Chisholm, 1833–ca. 1854, Collection State Library of NSW, Call Number Ac19/Folder 1.

  11T.M. Parssinen, “Popular Science and Society: The Phrenology Movement in Early Victorian Britain”, Journal of Social History, vol. 8, no. 1, 1974, pp.1–20; see JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3786523

  Chapter 4: India

  1The depiction of Madras is based on James Welsh, Military Reminiscences; Extracted from a Journal of Nearly Forty Years’ Active Service in the East Indies, Smith, Elder and Co., London, 1820, pp.5–7; and Julia Maitland, Letters from Madras. By a Lady During the Years 1836–1839, John Murray, London, 1846, p. 18.

  2Walker, op. cit., p.33; and The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia Vol. XII New Series January–April 1834, Parbury, Allen & Co, London, 1834, p.209. Archibald received his promotion on 8 April 1833.

  3Maitland, op. cit., p. 18.

  4Ibid., p. 19.

  5Ibid., p. 19.

  6Eneas Mackenzie, Memoirs, p.7

  7Maitland, op. cit., p. 56.

  8A Medical Practitioner of Several Years’ Experience in India, A Domestic Guide to Mothers in India Containing Particular Instructions on the Management of Themselves and Their Children, Bombay American Mission Press, Bombay, 1856, p. 178.

  9Madras Almanac and Compendium of Intelligence for 1839, Edmund Marsden, Madras, 1839, p. 140.

  10C.E. Buckland, CIE, Dictionary of Indian Biograp
hy, Swan Sonnenschein & Co, London, 1906, p. 78.

  11Eneas Mackenzie, Memoirs, p. 10.

  12Ibid., p. 8.

  13Ibid., p. 17.

  14The first British “School of Industry” was set up in 1799 in the Lake District. There were not many such schools for girls. Apart from basic reading and writing, they taught vocational subjects, such as knitting, sewing and spinning. Caroline may have fashioned her school upon this style of institution.

  15A Medical Practitioner of Several Years’ Experience, op. cit., p. 22.

  16Ibid., p. 33.

  17Ibid., p. 57.

  18The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, vol. 25, January to April 1838, Wm. H Allen & Co, London, 1838, p. 114.

  19Madras Almanac, 1839, , op. cit., p. 140.

  20The Asiatic Journal, op. cit., p. 259.

  Chapter 5: The Bounty Girls

  1The description of Sydney is based on sources including: The Rocks, History and Heritage, www.therocks.com/history-and-heritage; Sydney Military Hospital, http://thedirton.therocks.com/2012/03/first-hospital.htm; Grace Karskens, “The Rocks”, Dictionary of Sydney, 2008, http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/the_rocks. For Robert Campbell, see Margaret Steven, “Campbell, Robert (1769–1846)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/campbell-robert-1876/text2197, published first in hard copy 1966, accessed online 15 June 2017.

  2David Mackenzie, MA, The Emigrant’s Guide, or, Ten Years’ Practical Experience in Australia, W.S. Orr & Co, London, 1845, p. 57.

  3In 1838 New South Wales made up most of the continent of Australia: to the west it bordered present-day Western Australia. South Australia had been proclaimed an independent colony in 1836; Tasmania too was separate, ruled by a lieutenant governor, but New South Wales comprised the rest of the mainland, including modern-day Victoria and Queensland, as well as New Zealand (until 1840).

  4Mrs Charles Meredith (Louisa Ann Meredith), Notes and Sketches of New South Wales during a Residence in that Colony from 1839 to 1844, John Murray, London, 1844, p. 34. Louisa Ann Meredith sailed into Sydney Harbour in September 1839, almost exactly one year after Caroline.

  5Roger Therry, Esq., Reminiscences of Thirty Years’ Residence in New South Wales and Victoria, Sampson Low and Son and Co., London, 1863, p.68. Barrister, judge, acting Attorney-General of New South Wales and a politician, Therry maintained that members of the lower social classes, either children of emancipists or working-class immigrants, should be given the opportunity, through education, to improve their standing in society.

  6James Maclehose, Picture of Sydney and Strangers’ Guide in NSW for 1839, J. Maclehose, Sydney, 1839, p. 59.

  7David Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 150.

  8Meredith, op. cit., p. 38.

  9The Australian, advertising columns, Thursday, 27 November 1845, p. 2.

  10Meredith, op. cit., p. 39.

  11Maclehose, op. cit., p. 72.

  12The foundation stone for the original church was laid in 1820. The church was described by Maclehose as “an architectural ornament to the town” and it included “an excellent organ”. The building was ruined by fire in 1865. The foundation stone of the present St Mary’s Cathedral was laid in 1868.

  13David Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 32.

  14Callaghan, op. cit., p. 116.

  15The Sydney Gazette, 11 December 1838, p. 2.

  16Ibid, 29 December 1838, p. 2.

  17Therry, op. cit., p. 286.

  18Caroline Chisholm to Earl Grey, London, 27 January 1847, C.O. 201/390. F. 225 Public Record Office, London; copy in the Mitchell Library, Sydney.

  19David Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 105.

  20Ibid., p. 106.

  21Ibid., pp. 34–36.

  22Meredith, op. cit., p. 36.

  23Garry Wotherspoon, “Economy”, Dictionary of Sydney, 2008; see http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/economy, viewed 17 May 2017.

  24Australian Data Archive. According to the census of 2 March 1841 of the Police Districts of New South Wales, there were 87,290 men compared to 43,550 women in the colony.

  25Kiddle, op. cit., p. 12.

  26Eneas Mackenzie, Memoirs, op. cit., p. 23.

  27History of the Parishes in the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta, at www.parra.catholic.org.au/about-your-diocese/history/history-of-theparishes/history-of-the-parishes-in-the-catholic-diocese-of-parramatta.aspx/histories-of-the-parishes-of-the-catholic-diocese-of-parramatta/windsor---st-matthew-s-parish--est-1832-.aspx

  28Boating History of the Hawkesbury, at www.hawkesbury.net.au/memorial/wisemans_ferry_convicts/wfcm7.html

  29Kiddle, op. cit., p. 13.

  30Sidney, Three Colonies of Australia, p. 134.

  Chapter 6: Flora’s Story

  1Although the narrative at the start of this chapter is fictionalised, it is essentially true: part of it comes directly from Caroline’s own pen, in her first published work, Female Immigration Considered. Caroline incorporated Flora’s story into her account of the events that led to her establishing her home.

  2The Australasian Chronicle, Tuesday, 27 April 1841, p. 3; The Australasian Chronicle, Tuesday, 4 May 1841, p. 3.

  3Sidney, Three Colonies of Australia, p. 134.

  4Ibid.

  5Chisholm, Female Immigration Considered, p. 2.

  6Ibid.

  7Ibid.

  8Ibid.

  9Ibid.

  10Ibid.

  11Ibid., p. 4.

  12Eneas Mackenzie, Memoirs, p.39; and Therry, op. cit., p. 423.

  13Chisholm, Female Immigration Considered, p. 3.

  14Ibid., p. 5.

  15Ibid., p. 4.

  16Ibid., p. 6.

  17The Australasian Chronicle, Saturday, 18 September 1841, p. 2.

  18Chisholm, Female Immigration Considered, p. 7.

  19Ibid.

  20Ibid., p. 9

  Chapter 7: The Immigrants’ Home

  1According to Caroline’s pamphlet Female Immigration Considered, she asked two women friends to accompany her to The Sydney Herald (soon to be The Sydney Morning Herald) offices. They refused and she went alone. She asked the new proprietors, Fairfax and Kemp, to publish ten letters from bounty girls but they refused for the reasons given in this account. The letters no longer exist; the ones quoted at the start of the story are fictitious. Fairfax and Kemp did, however, support the establishment of the home and, when it began, gave Caroline a £2 donation. Some of the details regarding John Fairfax and Charles Kemp are drawn from their entries in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. See J. O. Fairfax, “Fairfax. John (1804–1877)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fairfax-john-3493/text5357, published first in hard copy 1972; and Charles Kemp, G. J. Abbott, “Kemp, Charles (1813–1864)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kempcharles-2295/text2963, published first in hard copy 1967.

  2“Mrs. Chisholm on the Land Question”, The Empire, Saturday, 9 July 1859.

  3The Australasian Chronicle, Saturday, 11 September 1841, p. 2.

  4The Australasian Chronicle, Tuesday, 14 September 1841, p. 2.

  5The Sydney Herald, Friday, 24 September 1841, p. 2.

  6The Australasian Chronicle, Tuesday, 26 October 1841, p. 2.

  7Stinson, op. cit., pp. 82–83.

  8Hoban, op. cit., p. 56.

  9Ibid., p. 109.

  10Chisholm, Female Immigration Considered, pp. 10–11.

  11Ibid.

  12Amongst the lawyers who helped Caroline was her friend Thomas Callaghan; see Callaghan, op. cit., p.116. Another well-known friend, colonial lawyer, judge and politician Sir Roger Therry, asserted that none of her contracts were ever questioned; see Therry, op. cit., p. 423.

  13Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland; together with the Minutes of Evidence. Session 184
7, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 23 July 1847, p.413.

  14Ibid., p. 414.

  15Chisholm, Female Immigration Considered, pp. 11–12.

  Chapter 8: Going Bush

  1This fictional account is designed only to give a view of how Caroline and her protégées travelled from Sydney and through the bush, and of the dangers they faced. There is no record of Caroline being stopped by bushrangers. This bushranger is loosely based on Teddy “Jewboy” Davis, who roamed with his gang throughout the Lower Hunter Valley up until March 1841, when they were caught and hung. Until the end of 1840 they avoided killing anyone, but during an armed robbery in Scone in December that year one of the gang shot and killed a man. Teddy Davis and his gang had something of a Robin Hood reputation. Their stash of stolen goods has never been discovered. See www.jenwilletts.com/jewboygang.htm

  2Chisholm, Female Immigration Considered, p. 12.

  3Sidney, Three Colonies of Australia, p. 150.

  4With thanks to Richard Stafford for lending me his report, prepared for the University of NSW and Heritage Council of Australia in 1985, Conservation Plan of Caroline Chisholm’s Barracks. The building in Maitland is now known as Caroline Chisholm Cottage.

  5Report of Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland, op. cit., p. 410.

  6Therry, op. cit., pp. 421–22.

  7Chisholm, Female Immigration Considered, p. 62.

  8Ibid., p. 36

  9Ibid., pp. 20–21.

  10Ibid., pp. 44–45.

  11Ibid., pp. 41–42.

  12Caroline Chisholm, Prospectus of a Work to be Entitled “Voluntary Information from the People of New South Wales Respecting the Social Condition of the Middle and Working Classes in the Colony”, Introduction, with quote about flockmasters published in W.A. Duncan’s The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts, and General Literature, vol. V, Saturday, 30 August 1845, no.110, p.98. It was also published the following year in, bizarrely, The Bengal Catholic Herald, 10 January, 1846, p. 24. Extracts were included seven years later in Sidney, Three Colonies of Australia, p. 152.

  13Caroline Chisholm, Emigration and Transportation Relatively Considered; In a Letter, Dedicated, by Permission, to Earl Grey. By Mrs Chisholm, John Olliver, London, 1847, p. 21.